Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration March 27, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FMCSA announces planned improvements to the Carrier Safety Measurement System (SMS) which was implemented in December 2010 as part of the Agency's broader Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) initiative. A preview of these improvements will be available to motor carriers and law enforcement on March 27, 2012. The system changes are scheduled to be available to the public in July 2012. There will be additional opportunity for public comment on the changes after the preview period ends in July 2012. The improvements to SMS announced in this notice are based on ongoing analysis and feedback from enforcement personnel, the motor carrier industry, and other stakeholders. The changes more effectively identify and prioritize high-risk and other unsafe motor carriers for enforcement interventions designed to reduce commercial motor vehicle crashes and hazardous materials incidents. Starting on March 27, 2012, FMCSA will provide motor carriers with the ability to preview how the improvements impact their individual safety data in SMS. These improvements include: (1) Changes to the SMS methodology that identify higher risk carriers while addressing industry biases; (2) better applications of SMS results for Agency interventions by more accurately identifying safety sensitive carriers (i.e., carriers transporting people and carriers hauling hazardous materials (HM)), so that such firms can be selected for CSA interventions at more stringent levels; and, (3) more specific fact- based displays of SMS results on the SMS Web site. The data preview may be found at https://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/. During the data preview period, the Agency requests comments on the impacts of the changes.